Peek Inside: A Professional Organizer's House {The Playroom}

It's that time again!!

{Translation: if you're nosy, this is your favorite post of the month.....because you get to PEEK INSIDE my house!}

 

Believe it or not, this is one of my favorite posts to do each month too. I know how much I enjoy looking at how other people have organized (& decorated) their homes, so it makes me happy to give you a glimpse of mine, a room at a time.

 

This month - and last month, too - we have been talking about organizing all things in the dreaded playroom....artwork, DVDs, games, toys, and electronics. It can be a bit overwhelming, I know. Hopefully you've found some good organizing solutions this month on the blog though!

 

And without further ado, I present.....My playroom.....

 

This room is the heart of our home. It serves not only as the playroom, but the family room. It houses the bigger of our 2 TV's (the other - smaller - one is upstairs in the master). We gather in here to watch "America's Funniest Home Videos" on Sunday nights (yes, that is still on!), we play board games in here, and it's where we congregate when family is in town. It's not a huge room, but it has oodles of storage space. Surprisingly, I haven't figured out a way to use it all yet! (Good problem to have, I know.)

 

I adore the plantation shutters and the built-in bookcases flanking the windows. Let's start on the left side bookcase....

 I have a few pieces of my kids' artwork stored here, and since they are held on with clips, I can change them out easily. I am not a huge DIY gal, but these frames were a small project I tackled. I removed the glass from each frame, and then covered each backing with burlap. Then I just hot-glued a clip to the burlap!

 Down below in the cabinet, we store our card games & puzzles. Like I said, still have some empty storage space to be utilized down the line....

 My kids LOVE to play card games - Uno, Go Fish, and Old Maid are their current favorites - but they are pretty rough on the boxes. So I have put each card game into a baggie, and put a label on the front with the game name. And if there are any instructions, those go in the baggie too.

 Moving the right side bookcase....

 In the gray basket on the bottom shelf, we store the kids' electronics. This consists of a DS, Leap Pad, and 2 Kindles. I like to keep all the chargers in this basket as well, so the kids always know where they can find them. (THEY are in charge of charging their devices, not Mommy!)

 I corral the chargers with a simple twist tie, and made a label with washi tape.

 In the below cabinet, we keep cds - my husband refuses to part with them!! - as well as a case full of batteries and a stack of DS games.

 

Here is a close-up of our battery storage. This is just one of those craft/bead organizers from Michael's, and they're great because the dividers are easy to rearrange and I love all the compartments. Larger batteries, as well as a screwdriver, are stored in the wicker basket atop the battery case. (If you think it's random that we have batteries in the playroom, you must not have many toys. Somehow from day one, our kids' toys have always required a lot of batteries!)

 Moving onto the entertainment system.

 

I have seen this DVD storage system over & over on Pinterest, and I think it's great. But, truth be told, I prefer to keep it simple. The top shelf holds my son's movies, the middle shelf holds my daughter's movies, and the bottom shelf holds my husband's movies & a few Christmas ones. There is a little bit of overlap between my son & daughter tastes, but for the most part, they keep it organized this way. And I think it's easier to identify the movie if it's still in its case.

Now onto perhaps the best part of the playroom. Two closets - with doors so you can close them if you don't want to see all the toys! - flank the entrance to the room.

 The closet on the left holds:

1. 2 bins of adult games - Scrabble, Boggle, Balderdash, etc.

2. Kids' games

3. Bins with hanging chalkboard labels for: Cars, Horses, Wrestling Figures, Abby, Nate, Building Boards. (The "Abby" and "Nate" bins are my favorite because they hold all the miscellaneous junk my kids love - the stuff they get in Happy meals, at parties, etc. All the stuff they claim to not be able to live without!)

4. 2 large tubs that hold Weapons and Miscellaneous large toys.

I went with a simple gray & white theme, and all of the white bins are from the Dollar Store. The gray ones are from Target & TJ Maxx.

 The right side toy closet holds the following:

1. Workout mat & Outdoor stuff

2. Balls, Tea Set, Pokémon, Instruments, TMNT

3. Gears, Magnetix, Barbies, My Little Ponies, Princesses, Guns

4. Stroller, Pom-Poms, blue gymnastic mats, jumbo piano (like in the movie "Big!"), and a Nerf machine gun.

 Again, the bins came from Dollar Tree, Target, and TJ Maxx. I love the hanging chalkboard labels, because they are easy to change as your kids' toys change. I have found that sorting toys into categories really helps three things:

 

1. Kids can see their options.

2. Kids can find what they are looking for more easily.

3. Kids don't  have the excuse of saying "I don't know where it goes!" when it's clean-up time

 

(#3 is my favorite reason!)

One more little gem for you....since we don't have a huge or flat coffee table in the playroom, I keep an old bulletin board under the couch. We slide it out when we need a flat surface to play a game, do a puzzle, or build a creation. And then when we're done, just slide it back under the couch & out of sight!

This concludes the tour of our playroom. I hope you picked up some good tips! Leave a comment below with your favorite way you organize your playroom. (Or what you need help with!)

 

 

 

Friday Favorites: Toy Cubbies

I have had MANY clients that need help organizing their playrooms. And my first recommendation is always the same: Get some toy cubbies!!!

Toy cubbies are this weeks "Friday Favorite" for so.many.reasons!

 

1. They hide the clutter.

2. They make it easier for your child to find what toy they are looking for.

3. They make it easier for your child to put away toys.

4. They are super cute!

 

Here are just a few examples of some amazing toy cubbies out there. The possibilities are endless!

{Source}

{Source}



{Source}

{Source}

{Source}

This was taken at a client's house a few months ago. Click on the "source" link below to see what her playroom used to look like before the cubbies came along!

{Source}

Do you use toy cubbies? If so, leave a comment or show me a picture of yours!

Tuesday Transformation: Playroom!

I wanted to show some before & after pictures of a playroom I helped to transform recently! This momma called me because she needed a system for their growing toy collection, especially since they have a second child on the way.

 

This is what I was dealing with:

 

I recommended getting a piece of storage furniture, with lots of cubbies that her son could label. (So he wouldn't have the excuse "I don't know where it goes!" when it was clean-up time :)

 

We spent a few hours categorizing the toys, throwing away broken pieces, and deciding which items to sell/donate. And here is what we ended up with:

 

I love these mini-chalkboards, and I think her son did an awesome job with the artwork on the labels!!

 

Let's look at the before & after pictures, side by side:

 

I also organized underneath her TV cabinet in the playroom.....which just required locating a few puzzle pieces, sorting & purging a few items, and then storing "like" items together.

Here is a before & after shot:

 

Let me know if I can help transform your playroom!

Organizing Video Games & DVDs

Have video games & dvds taken over your playroom?! If so, here are some tips to keep them under control & more easily accessible for your kids.....

If you use a media cabinet for storage, I recommend using clear bins. This blogger separated hardware/accessories, figures, and games. Super easy for a kid to grab a bin and find the video game or piece they need!

{Source}

 Instead of having a media console, another great idea is to repurpose a dresser. Again, use bins to separate games from accessories. Each drawer can even have it's own purpose....1-movies, 2-video games, etc. Like I mentioned earlier, the goal is to make this system kid-friendly!!

{Source}

Another option is a lidded option. This is my favorite! I love how everything has its' place and then you can just close the lid and not see it :)

{Source}

 

Use a back-of-the-door organizer to store video game controllers & accessories.

 I don't expect everyone to be able to build a swivel tower like this blogger did, but I love the pegboard idea to hang controllers etc. So, if you have the wall space, hanging a pegboard would be a great option.

{Source}

Finally, those pesky DVDs...... I love the idea of getting rid of the cases and just filing them in a cd sleeve. This blogger has a whole system of inventory sheets printed out, but if that's too extreme for you, I would just color-code the movies. (Example: Blue = brother's movies, Red = sister's movies, Yellow = Mom & Dad's movies....)

{Source}

Happy Organizing!

Reader Space: Organizing Kids' Artwork

A reader asked for help when it came to organizing & storing her son's artwork. And because he's only 2, you KNOW he is bringing home a masterpiece with handprints or doodles every.single.day!!

 

As a mom of two kids (age 5 & 7), I can sympathize. Luckily, there are oodles of ideas out there and here are a few of my favorites:

-Create a "brag board" (made out of an bulletin board, cork tiles, etc) for each child. These could hang in either a playroom or kitchen. Only place items on these boards that your child is *super* proud to show you. So... you might be changing them out every day :) But if they are tacked up with a pushpin, no big deal, right?!



{Source}

 

-A similar idea is to either make a DIY "Masterpiece" board like the one shown below, or hang a magnetic strip (from IKEA) with just a few favorite pieces displayed.

(This would also but cute done with clipboards or cork tiles).

{Source}

Again, these two ideas are mainly for "favorite" pieces. So what do you do with the other 105,834 pieces of artwork that come home with your child!? Well, if you want to get fancy, here are two options that I adore:

-You can purchase a collage made from your child's artwork! See the Etsy listing here.



Please look at how cute this is! It could easily
serve as artwork on the wall in your child's room.

 -Through www.plumprint.com, you can have your child's artwork turned into a coffee table book!!

......But, I must get back to my reader's original question :) 

She asked about two solutions - to hang a few favorite art pieces in frames, and then file the rest. To that I say: Bravo! That is exactly what I do, and it's been a great system for me so far.
In fact, here are pictures of my kids' "brag boards" in our playroom:

 



(I covered the backing of each frame with burlap, took out the glass, and hot-glued a clip}

 

....And our craft room:

 

...And then my daughter has a display in her bedroom, because she colors & draws 24/7:


{I got the frames at Michael's when they were on sale}

Those 3 places are where I display their most favorite pieces, as soon as they bring them home.

With the rest, I put into a double wall pocket, similar to the one shown here.

{This one is from IKEA, but there are other cute options at
Target, Amazon, Pottery Barn, and Hobby Lobby}

 

At the end of each week, I go through the wall pockets, and do an initial purge. (Again, I keep things that the kids seemed really proud of, or ones that demonstrated a new skill, like writing their name or perfectly their addition facts). Then, I file the "keepers" in a tub like the one shown below. 
(I purchased 2" expandable hanging file folders, and designated one for each grade. And I made the labels using Microsoft Word.)

 

{I found both the file boxes & hanging files at Office Max}

 

At the end of the year, the folder will be overflowing, so you will have to do a second purge. Believe me, at the end of the year, not every single thing with a handprint will deem necessary to keep. And....I'm gonna say it.....you have my permission to throw away some of your kids' artwork!! It does NOT make you a bad parent to do so. Most likely, they will never know the difference anyway :)

 

So, Becca, I hope that answers your question and that you can find a good solution for your son's endless supply of artwork. I would love to see what you come up with.

Good luck!